If it's possible (seemingly trivial?) to determine that any given individual is possession of a bitcoin at any given time, then... uh...<p>How is bitcoin an "<i>anonymous</i>" cryptocurrency?<p>I mean, I feel kind of stupid for even asking such a question, but given the circumstances, wouldn't that be an exceptionally important detail?<p>Based on all these second-hand accounts that I read about, sometimes written by journalists with an amateurish technical competency (which, by proxy, also renders me an amateur), it sounds like bitcoins are about as anonymous as an AOL e-mail addresses, or prepaid cellular phones.<p>It doesn't seem like they were actually conceived an anonymous system, but rather that some people devised processes through which they could produce an effective anonymity with transactions carried this instrument.<p>The cryptographic aspect of bitcoins seems to be geared only in favor of authenticity, and not anonymity. Were bitcoins ever conceived with true anonymity in mind? Are these revelations of identity just, due to elaborate and highly technical side-channel attacks?<p>Am I wrong in my perception that bitcoins seem to be an object where it's only happenstance that you can craft an anonymous position? ...that they are actually only offer pseudonymity?